Kimberly-Clark Thinks 2022 Will Be a Great Year, but a Key Peer Is Sounding the Alarm
"Elasticity" is the insider word in the consumer staples space that describes consumers' willingness to pay more for products. And right now, based on how well Kimberly-Clark (NYSE: KMB) is performing, customers are very accepting of higher costs. Here's why investors shouldn't get too comfortable with the good news today and forget that, at some point, consumers will push back.
Kimberly-Clark's first-quarter organic sales increased a massive 10% year over year. That's a huge increase by any stretch of the imagination for a company that sells consumer staples like toilet paper. Yes, we all need toilet paper and we're all happy to have ample access to it (noting the shortages in the early days of the pandemic), but historically this type of product would have been considered slow and boring.
That's just not the case right now, thanks to inflationary pressures -- which is a key factor in Kimberly-Clark's results.
Source Fool.com